Introducing Mrs. Collins
Dear Mrs Collins,
No doubt your husband has disclosed the contents of my letter regarding the forthcoming marriage of my nephew; I urge you to encourage him down the sensible path. I know I may rely on your spousal influence, as well as your moral conduct.
But the reason I am writing is that I have heard of your recent loss. I hope you will forgive my being frank in addressing it directly; I have been in the same position several times, and I have never found delicate words to be of much use in dulling the pain.
You will by now be operating your life at a normal pace, I think, and appear to others to be quite recovered. I know that in truth you will be still in some turmoil, carrying a weight with you, which, though it will become lighter and easier to manage, you will always carry.
If I may, I offer the following advice: to include your husband in your grief.
While Mr Collins’s feelings will not be the same as your own, he, too, will be suffering, and he has the potential to be a sympathetic ear to you.
He is a man of unique skills, not all of them suited to marriage, but he loves you very dearly – that much is clear – and I suspect he would be a comfort to you, if you would let him.
I expect this letter to remain strictly between us, and I shall not remark upon it when I see you next.
I am reliably informed that the poplars at the bottom of your drive are overgrown and are now encroaching upon Rosings parkland, so my gardener will cut them back at some point this week or the next.
Yours sincerely,
Lady Catherine de Bourgh